The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues. This blog will consist of information describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft and links to news reports & other informational sources from throughout the country about the victims of Home Equity Theft and what government authorities and others are doing about it.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

An Indianapolis lawyer was charged today with bilking a mortgage company of $106,000 from the purchase of foreclosed homes. The U.S. Attorney's office in Indianapolis said Brian L. Nehrig, 43, skimmed profits from 32 foreclosure purchases in Indiana. He was hired by CitiMortgage to place bids for foreclosed homes at sheriff's auctions. He was charged with mail fraud because he mailed checks that were less than he received for selling the properties to third parties.

[According to the charging documents,] Nehrig placed an inflated minimum bidding price for many of the properties at the sheriff’s sale. He then completed sales of the properties with third parties with whom he was associated without CitiMortgage’s knowledge and permission. Nehrig hid the conduct from CitiMortgage by sending CitiMortgage a check for its minimum price plus $1, making CitiMortgage believe its property had sold at the sheriff’s sale in an arm’s length transaction. The charging document alleges that the difference between the funds sent to CitiMortgage and the actual funds received by the deals was $106,122.

Georgia Homeowner Faces Mold Threat From Next-Door Vacant Foreclosure

In Cobb County, Georgia, WXIA-TV Channel 11 reports:

What to do? You've been flooded. You've cleaned up and now your home is threatened by mold and mildew from an abandoned foreclosed property. We are starting to hear the complaints. Sharon LaNata of Austell has a story to tell. Her flooded house shares a wall with an abandoned foreclosed property next door.

FEMA couldn't help because it can only help individual homeowners living in a flooded property. Sharon contacted her county. Cobb County Environmental Services officials contacted the property management company. If nothing is done court action could be taken but that can take a long time and the mold from the neighboring rotting property could spread and hamper all cleanup efforts. It's an emergency.

A Casa Grande homeowners association was placed in receivership, following allegations that board members drained funds for their own benefit - including what was described as the “theft” of more than $600,000. Pinal County Superior Court Judge Robert Olson’s Sept. 30 order placed a receiver in charge of the Desert Carmel Lot Owners Association.

Along with other reasons, Olson cited a board member’s unauthorized withdrawal of $665,000 from association’s account. “The court finds that the parties controlling the DC Lot Owners Association were grossly negligent in failing to protect to, protect, preserve or detect these withdrawals, which constituted the bulk of the liquid assets of the association,” Olson said in his order. “This alone justifies the appointment of a receiver.”

Housing Authority Seeks To Boot 86-Year Old Tenant; Son Sold Drugs On Property, Say Officials

In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the Bucks County Courier Times reports:

Officials said Belle Perry violated her lease because her son sold drugs on the property. The Bucks County Housing Authority has filed paperwork to evict an 86-year-old woman from her federally subsidized home in Venice Ashby because officials say her son sold drugs on the property, among other lease violations.(1)

***

Police records of the Aug. 20 drug arrest state that her son, Sylvester Perry, sold a small amount of drugs to another man on the 1600 block of Foster Avenue Circle. Belle Perry lives in that block. Sylvester Perry is in prison on $40,000 bail awaiting an October hearing on those charges. On Aug. 26, the housing authority filed a complaint seeking Belle Perry's eviction.

***

"Its disturbing that an 86-year-old woman would be evicted and given less than 72 hours to leave for something her son allegedly did and he doesn't even live there," Philadelphia attorney L. Kenneth Chotiner said Friday. Chotiner, a former Philadelphia Housing Authority attorney, said he advised Belle Perry to file for bankruptcy to try to stave off the eviction. [Daughter] Bobbie Perry said she filed for bankruptcy on behalf of her mother Friday morning.

(1) In court records, the authority states that Belle Perry violated her lease by allowing drug-related activity on her premises, allowing herself, tenants and guests to disturb the peace, failing to maintain decent, safe and sanitary conditions, allowing herself, tenants and guests to engage in illegal, unlawful or disorderly conduct, and allowing drug-related criminal activity, according to court records.

Federal Law w/ Foreclosure Eviction Safeguards No Help To Tenants Forced From Building As Burst Sewer Pipe, Power Cut Leads City To Condemn Premises

In Opa Locka, Florida, WFOR-TV Channel 4 reports:

Imagine being told you had only days to move out of your home. That's the reality for several Opa-Locka renters, who got the shock of their lives when they were told their apartment building had been foreclosed on. They say they'd been paying their rent all along. Many of the renters gave off feelings of frustration and fear as they packed up to leave their homes.

In a matter of days, their apartment building was condemned. A sewer pipe burst and the power was cut. [...] Residents had nowhere to go after they were told they had to leave. The city felt the building was unsafe after the developer cut corners on renovations and lost the property to foreclosure, leaving the renters in the middle.

Friday, October 09, 2009

A court decision expected as soon as today could negate the validity of sales of thousands of foreclosed homes in Massachusetts, causing havoc for buyers and sellers and further stalling the housing market’s recovery in hard-hit areas. At issue is proof of ownership at the time of a foreclosure sale. During the housing boom, millions of mortgages were bundled into bonds and sold to investors, a process that resulted in lengthy and twisted paper trails that can obscure ownership. Many lenders believed they could complete foreclosure transactions and later produce formal proof they held the mortgage.

That changed in March when Justice Keith C. Long of Massachusetts Land Court found that two foreclosures in Springfield were invalid because ownership of the mortgages was not clear at the time of the foreclosures. Long’s ruling, which came as a shock to many who deal with distressed properties, called into question the ownership of hundreds if not thousands of foreclosed homes in Massachusetts, prompting some lenders to delay sales out of fear they could later be voided, title companies to balk at insuring them, and nonprofits to steer away from certain foreclosed homes altogether.

***

Two of the plaintiffs asked Long to reconsider the ruling, and a decision is imminent.(1)

***

Gary Klein, a consumer law attorney who filed a friend of the court brief in the case, said the real estate system placed “expedience and convenience’’ before the law. Providing home buyers with a “full set of procedural protections,’’ he said, is more important than comforting lenders who ignored the law. He said the lending community created the mess and it needs to fix it.(2)

(2) Kathleen Engel, professor of law at Suffolk University, said the federal government should step in to help states deal with “toxic titles’’ that are clogging up the system from California to Florida. EpsilonMissingDocsMtg

As a former Cincinnati police officer, Adrian Mitchell understands hierarchy and chain of command. That chain led all the way up to a three-star general of the U.S. Army who [...] accused Mitchell of wrecking the life of the general’s sister. Adrian Mitchell will spend three years in prison after a federal judge sentenced him Wednesday in a scheme to defraud an insurance company. But prosecutors and the general said the scheme was much worse than it sounds.

Mitchell was a Cincinnati police officer who operated a foreclosure rescue and real estate business on the side. Police say he solicited homeowners having financial problems and offered to buy their houses, which they would then rent from him. If they couldn’t pay, he’d evict them. One of the owners committed suicide. That was the general’s brother-in-law.

Prosecutors say Mitchell then forged the widow’s name on a life insurance claim form and falsely represented himself to the insurer as a family member, depositing the $188,327 proceeds into his business bank accounts. He pleaded guilty in February to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false income tax return.

On Wednesday, he faced the judge for his sentencing. But first he had to listen as Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, one of the top officers at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C., who recalled the devastation to his sister, who hasn’t recovered after losing her husband, home, and insurance proceeds.

Virginia Couple Get Prison Time For Running Foreclosure Rescue Ponzi Scheme Resulting In $9.7M In Losses

In Richmond, Virginia, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

Darrell and Cynthia Underwood were sentenced to prison terms of 10 years and three years, respectively, [...] in a real estate investment scheme that caused $9.7 million in losses. The Chesterfield County couple were sentenced by U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer, who imposed the stiffest term called for under Darrell Underwood's plea agreement but two years less than the maximum his wife was facing. Each apologized yesterday for their conduct and to their victims, many of them fellow church members at the Mount Gilead Full Gospel International Ministries.

***

The Underwoods were owners of Walkwood Properties,(1) which specialized in helping homeowners about to lose their homes to foreclosure. The company solicited money from investors to help purchase homes. Many who invested were promised -- and received -- a 50 percent return on their money within 60 to 90 days. But the Underwoods were running a Ponzi scheme in which money from new investors was used to pay earlier ones. [...] Of $18 million the couple brought in from investors in just eight months, only $2.1 million was used in any housing transactions.

(1) According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Walkwood Properties is connected to another case styled United States v. Colin C. Connelly, Case No. 3:08CR466. In connection with a guilty plea entered on December 2, 2008, Connelly admitted to conspiring with representatives from Walkwood Properties to skim equity in housing transactions by making false entries on HUD-1 Settlement Statements. On March 10, 2009, Judge Spencer sentenced Connelly to 24 months imprisonment and ordered him to pay $376,464.62 in restitution.

Buried in a recent column in the Miami Daily Business Review is a recounting of a South Florida homeowner's experience with a local attorney selling loan modification services to the public:

The [Florida Attorney General's] office is investigating consumer complaints that Brian Korte, a West Palm Beach attorney tied to a Fort Lauderdale company called Legal Modification Attorney at Law, allegedly charged advance fees and “misled consumers regarding the nature of the legal services provided by the company and the level of involvement the attorney would have with each consumer’s case,” [deputy director Ryan] Wiggins said.(1)

***

Homeowner Peter Fischer of Sunrise said in a complaint to the AG’s office that he paid Korte’s law firm $2,900 to oversee a loan modification. According to Fischer, Korte and his staff told him to stop paying his mortgage and not to contact or answer calls from the lender. Fischer said he was told the fee would be refunded to him if the modification did not go though.

Fischer said after several failed attempts to reach Korte, a member of the lawyer’s staff called and said Fischer’s files had been lost and they needed his information again. Shortly after that, Fischer said, a Korte staffer told him he did not qualify for a loan modification. “I asked for the paperwork on why I was denied and nothing was ever sent to me,” Fischer said. “So I asked for my money back and they said ‘let me think about it.’"

Fischer said he was later told half of his fee would be returned. Fischer said ‘half is better than nothing,” but still filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office. The AG’s Wiggins said it has received six other complaints about Korte, but declined to discuss details of the investigation. The Florida Bar said it too has received multiple complaints against Korte, but would not provide additional information because the investigation is confidential. Bar complaints remain confidential until a grievance committee finds probable cause for the investigation to continue.

(1) Reportedly, the attorney general’s investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed. Korte did not return messages left at his West Palm Beach office and did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment, according to the story. UnauthPractOfLawTheta

United States Attorney Lawrence G. Brown and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Drew Parenti announced [...] that JOSHUA GERVOLSTAD, 31, of Redding, pleaded guilty today to one count of mail fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme. This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the FBI.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Segal, who prosecuted the case, GERVOLSTAD, who was a mortgage broker, submitted inflated appraisals and false lien documents for use in closing purchase transactions involving five different real properties located in Redding and in Lodi. The closing statement for each property contained fraudulent papers requiring the payoff of a lien to an entity called "TPG Investments." In each case, the lien did not exist. In reality, GERVOLSTAD controlled TPG Investments and used its bank account to divert mortgage loan funds to himself and other persons.

His conduct caused $1,798,888.91 in fraudulent payouts for liens that did not exist, affecting mortgages with a total value of $5,441,562. At least three of the properties were foreclosed and were sold for a combined loss of at least $1,170,000.

A New York woman is accused of taking advantage of a local man’s incarceration by stealing thousands of dollars from him and his family. Judy L. Lamay, 61, was arraigned Tuesday in Bantam Superior Court on charges of first-degree larceny, second-degree larceny and second-degree forgery.

***

Lamay reportedly convinced [Pieter] Parker to grant her power of attorney to cash his paychecks for him and under the guise of looking after his home. Lamay reportedly forged a quit claim deed in an attempt to place the home in foreclosure, and gain access to Parker’s mortgage account, according to the [arrest] warrant.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Florida Prosecutor Asks Judge To Order Deed Theft Duo To Return Stolen Home To 92-Year Old Widow

In New Port Richey, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:

Joseph and Cynthia Clancy no longer live in Eloise Mudway's 2,900-square-foot house on Hilltop Drive, a house valued at $350,000 that they stole out from under the 92-year-old in 2004. A judge assigned the couple new digs after their convictions Sept. 21 on grand theft charges: the Land O' Lakes Jail. The Clancys will remain in custody until their sentencing Oct. 22. They each face up to 30 years in prison.

Mudway continues to live with Jeff and Debra Kores, a local couple who have been caring for her since early 2005. Mudway's most pressing wish has been to reclaim the house she and her late husband purchased in 1980. Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis hopes to make that happen this week. Last month, Halkitis filed a motion asking a judge to order the Clancys to sign a document that would divest them of any interest in the house. A hearing is set for Friday.

"If they comply and sign, the house is hers," Halkitis said. "But I don't think they're ever going to do that. If they don't, the judge can hold them in contempt, but they probably don't care because they're in custody now and are probably going to do state prison time." If Halkitis is right, Mudway's best chance of recovering the house likely will be the lawsuit she filed against the Clancys in 2005. The lawsuit was filed to recover the house and 5 acres, but the case has moved slowly. It is scheduled to be back in court Nov. 23.

The owners of a Tampa company have been arrested in Peru in a scheme to defraud nearly 300 Florida homeowners, most of them Hispanic, with offers to help them avoid foreclosure. Mario Quiroz and Jose Oliveri, who owned Valrico-based 4 Solutions, were taken into custody late last week, said John Joyce, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Tampa field office. They disappeared two years ago as a mortgage fraud investigation expanded.(1)

"These guys were on our international most-wanted list, and some of our agents in Peru were contacted with information as to their whereabouts," Joyce said. The U.S. government is tying to extradite them to face charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering, Joyce said. The company, he said, carried out an elaborate scheme targeting homeowners in the Tampa area, Orlando and south Florida.

***

Using the Internet, radio and television, the company marketed a method to avoid home foreclosures. Financially strapped homeowners thought they were refinancing or signing over rights to their homes temporarily. The company then sold the homes without the homeowner's knowledge, the Secret Service said. Twelve financial institutions lost a total of $8 million, Joyce said.

In some cases, homeowners were told they were refinancing their homes. In other cases, the company agreed to make the mortgage payments for up to two years, stopping the foreclosure and give the homeowner time to get back on their feet. Homeowners say they were told they would get their houses back. Instead, the company put the homes in the names of others - often the wife of one of the owners – and took out large mortgages, stripping the home of its equity. The company then stopped paying the mortgage and let the homes fall into foreclosure.

"Benevolence and compassion” have no place when it comes to setting foreclosure sales, a state appellate court ruled in a stern order. The 3rd District Court of Appeal judges said they "thoroughly disapprove" of a decision by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie Manno Shurr to give an extra month to a couple trying to sell their home before a foreclosure sale, Senior Judge Alan R. Schwartz wrote for the panel last week.

Manno Shurr declined to comment on the decision, citing judicial rules that prohibit her from talking about specific cases. But in court, she made her position clear. “People are having a hard time now. They are having a difficult time. Everybody knows it. Businesses are failing. People are losing money in the stock market. You know, unemployment is high,” Manno Shurr said. “Everybody knows that we are in a bad time right now, and I hate to see anybody lose their home.”(1)

The appellate court found her reasoning flawed and said her decision granting extra time was “an abuse of discretion in the most basic sense of that term” because the bank had a right to the sale.(2)

(1) Charles M. Rosenberg, attorney for Republic Federal Bank, said his client decided to appeal Manno Shurr’s decision in part because the bank felt Miami-Dade trial judges “needed some guidance.” “With all of the foreclosures being filed in this county, we thought that the trial judges needed some guidance from the court of appeal on under what circumstances they could grant extensions because it’s very common for people to run into court at the last minute asking for extensions,” he said.

(2) The Florida appellate court reinforced their ruling with this observation from a 1980 ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, which, in turn, invoked some words of wisdom from the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo, regarding the discretionary power of judges:

The trial courts’ discretionary power was never intended to be exercised in accordance with whim or caprice of the judge nor in an inconsistent manner. Judges dealing with cases essentially alike should reach the same result. Different results reached from substantially the same facts comport with neither logic nor reasonableness. In this regard, we note the cautionary words of Justice Cardozo concerning the discretionary power of judges:

The judge, even when he is free, is still not wholly free. He is not to innovate at pleasure. He is not a knight-errant roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness. He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated principles. He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to vague and unregulated benevolence. He is to exercise a discretion informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplined by system, and subordinated to "the primordial necessity of order in the social life." Wide enough in all conscience is the field of discretion that remains. B. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process 141 (1921).

Minnesota Regulators Take Action Against Title Agency That Allegedly Stiffed Underwriter Out Of Insurance Premiums Collected From Real Estate Closings

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Duluth News Tribune reports:

A family-owned and operated title insurance agency in Duluth and Two Harbors has been accused of fraud and operating without proper licenses by the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Scenic Title and Abstract Inc. is accused of collecting premiums from clients on behalf of Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. and never sending the collections to Fidelity. The title company, owned by Kevin Eckholm, is accused of failing to submit premiums in 237 instances in the past four years, court documents show.(1)

(1) The Minnesota Department of Commerce Order for Summary Suspension of the firm's licenses is effective immediately and will be considered at a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. EscrowRipOffKappa title insurance legal issues

Mark Brady seemed to have it all during the real estate boom -- two title companies, BMWs, a Hummer, powerboats, a $2 million home on Merritt Island, an oceanside condominium in Cape Canaveral and three other riverfront properties. Then, two days before Christmas, Brady was arrested -- charged with illegally using $80,000 of his clients' money from escrow accounts to pay off gambling debts in the Bahamas. Brady pleaded not guilty and was released on $8,500 bail. Hearings and sworn testimony are scheduled to begin in November. [...] Although it's unclear whether any real estate transactions were disrupted because money was removed the from escrow account, the money belonged to other people -- deposits toward purchases of homes, or mortgage money released to pay home sellers.(1)

And the state takes laws regulating escrow accounts seriously, Deputy State Attorney Wayne Holmes said. "These are essential components and aspects of commerce," Holmes said. "You have to have faith and trust in those entities or certain things just don't function."

(1) Reportedly, since his arrest, Brady has fallen into a financial spiral. He defaulted on several mortgages and is in foreclosure proceedings on his homes and condo, cars were repossessed, banks have sued him, and his two companies, Adams Title Co. and American Heritage Title Co., are defunct, according to the story. In September, he filed for bankruptcy, listing about $8 million in debt, including $500,000 in casino markers, the story states. EscrowRipOffKappa

Long Island Man Gets 4-12 Years In Vacant Home Hijacking Scam; Filed Phony Liens On Houses In Foreclosure, Then Rented Them To Unwitting Tenants

In Suffolk County, New York, Newsday reports:

A Medford man who rented out homes he didn't own continued to collect rent from unsuspecting tenants even after he was arrested in February on fraud and burglary charges, a prosecutor said Tuesday at the man's sentencing in Riverhead. Paul Salamone, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to 4 to 12 years in prison by Suffolk County Court Judge James Hudson, who ordered Salamone to pay more than $10,000 in restitution to his victims.

Salamone filed phony liens against seven homeowners in the midst of foreclosure proceedings, falsely claiming they owed him money, prosecutors said. He fixed up two of those homes, in Medford and East Patchogue, then rented them to tenants, prosecutors said.

Insisting he owned the homes, Salamone removed signs and changed the locks to keep homeowners and bank and real estate agents from entering the properties, prosecutor Marc Lindemann said. [...] Salamone placed dogs on the properties to scare off real estate agents and continued to collect rent after his indictment, Lindemann said. Salamone's victims will have to apply to the state to have the false liens declared invalid, Lindemann said.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

More Homeowners Face Foreclosure Despite Making All Payments As Seller-Financed Home Purchases That Left Existing Mortgages Unpaid Go Sour

In Milledgeville, Georgia, WMAZ-TV Channel 13 reports:

Andrea Wright takes pride in her decor. This year Andrea and her husband Henry bought their first home. "It was just like a dream come true," said Henry Wright of Milledgeville. A lifelong dream they say got cut short. Now, the couple faces foreclosure. "We trusted him because we saw it as an opportunity for us as well as an opportunity for him," said Andrea Wright.

Andrea means Jason Gallacher, LLC. She says they didn't have the credit to buy the home on their own so they bought the home in January from Gallacher through a seller finance purchase agreement where they paid Gallacher and he paid the bank.(1) They say they didn't know he still owed money on the property. "Our names were in the paper stating that this address as well as our name was being foreclosed, it was being auctioned off," said Andrea Wright.

Jason Gallacher says four homes in the Logan Bluff's subdivision are under foreclosure. Gallacher says he did sign seller finance purchase agreements with each of the four buyers and maintained payments through July but says after July his bank BB & T stopped accepting payments because partners in other projects he was involved in filed bankruptcy.

(1) This type of seller-financing arrangement is commonly referred to in some states as a "wraparound mortgage." In other states, it is generally referred to as an "all-inclusive trust deed." rent to own lease purchase option scams yellowstone

New Report Shines More Light On Lack Of Lawyers To Represent The Poor In Foreclosure Actions

In New York City, The Huffington Post reports:

As bad as America's foreclosure crisis is -- and it's very bad, with over 300,000 homes receiving a foreclosure filing every month -- it's being made even more devastating by the lack of legal assistance available to beleaguered homeowners. According to a new study by the Brennan Center for Justice, [...] "the nation's massive foreclosure crisis is also, at its heart, a legal crisis" -- with the vast majority of homeowners facing foreclosure doing so without legal counsel.

***

Having legal help can be the difference between people keeping their homes and being evicted. A lawyer can stop foreclosure proceedings or put enough pressure on lenders to get them to rework the terms of the loan. A lawyer can also intervene in other ways, such as enforcing consumer protection laws or spotting legal violations by banks and lenders.

According to the report, the barriers keeping homeowners from obtaining proper legal representation are twofold. The first, not surprisingly, is funding.(1) [...] The second barrier is that restrictions to adequate legal help have been deliberately built into the system.(2)

Go here for the new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (Full Report) (Press release).

(1) According to the story, in 1996, the budget for the Legal Services Corporation, the primary agency that provides help for low-income Americans in civil cases, had its budget cut by one-third. At this point, to match the funding level the Legal Services Corporation received in 1981 would require an increase of $753 million. If Goldman Sachs or Bank of America needed that kind of cash (or even 10 times that kind of cash), Washington wouldn't think twice. But low-income homeowners have no clout in DC. No wonder the Brennan Center found that legal service programs for the poor are currently "besieged with requests for foreclosure assistance."

(2) Current law severely limits the ability of homeowners to get legal protection from predatory lenders, the story states. For instance, homeowners represented by the Legal Services Corporation are barred from bringing class action suits. Nor are they able to make the other side pay attorneys' fees even when the law would normally allow it. As the report states, "the possibility of having to pay attorneys' fees provides a critical incentive to help ensure that a better funded legal adversary does not drag out proceedings in an attempt to exhaust the indigent client's resources."

Loan Modification Outfit Accused Of Failing To Deliver Services For Strapped Homeowners Also Stiffs Its Notaries, Says One Victim

An alleged loan modification racket featured in two recent stories(1) that has been accused by homeowners of peddling bogus foreclosure rescue services nationwide is now accused of stiffing the local notaries it uses to collect money and paperwork from the financially strapped homeowners, according to a recent story from WCNC-TV Channel 36 in North Carolina:

21st Century Legal Services was reaching out to Anita Hendren for her services as a certified notary public to help them facilitate loan modifications for North Carolina homeowners facing foreclosure. They asked her to collect checks and paperwork, and she did. After the first job, "I felt kind of comfortable, so I just accepted more jobs,” Hendren told Newschannel 36. "I did it 8 times in total."

The troubled started when she got her first payment -- a check that came back, "Not Sufficient Funds." When she called the company, she says she was told they'd send a new check immediately. She never saw one. She never got payment at all for the other jobs she performed. "21st Century owes me over $600," she says. Internet postings on the website 123notary.com express similar frustrations. Another notary in Charlotte told Newschannel 36 she was not paid as well.

In Hendren's case, those payment issues were frustrating, but she never truly worried until last week when she got a call from one of the homeowners she thought she’d helped. He told her the company had cashed his checks, but never contacted his lender. The family is on the brink of losing their home. When she heard a similar story from another customer, she started calling the homeowners who’d worked with 21st Century Legal Services.

Massive Mortgage Fraud Leaves Indianapolis Neighborhood In State Of Near-Abandonment

In Indianapolis, Indiana, WRTV-TV Channel 6 reports:

A once-popular east side neighborhood is eerily quiet in the wake of the collapse of what authorities called a massive mortgage fraud scheme. Jerry Jaquess, 67, of Carmel, was sentenced this week to two and a half years in prison(1) after the housing bubble burst revealed the huge scam he was running in the Windsor Village neighborhood near 21st Street and Arlington Avenue, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

Jaquess bought up 180 rental duplexes in the area beginning in 2003, fraudulently inflating appraisals in a resale scheme involving phony investors to obtain money from lenders, who were never repaid, according to court documents. When they started foreclosing, the scheme collapsed, leaving the neighborhood largely abandoned.

(1) According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, eight other individuals have been charged in the schemes and those cases are currently pending. The investigation is continuing as to other individuals who were involved in the mortgage fraud schemes. BetaVacantForeclosure

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Tenant Accuses Priest Of Skimming Rent From Home In Foreclosure; Now Faces The Boot After Sinking $3K+ Into Repairs

In Wolcott, Connecticut, The Republican American reports:

At first glance, the modest Cape Cod house [...] seemed ideal for Shelly Ryan and her family. There was room for her small children and a back yard for her service dog. It was owned by a priest and available for rent. She and her landlord, the Rev. William R. Sokolowski, the pastor of St. Maria Goretti Church, signed a one-year lease that began on May 1. However, Sokolowski failed to mention problems with the house, including the fact that it had been under foreclosure since March 7.

Judge Salvatore Agati issued a strict foreclosure ruling on July 20, and Aurora Loan Services took over the property on Sept. 8. Ryan was unaware of the foreclosure until mid-September, when a person parked in her driveway and took pictures of the house. The photographer said the house had been foreclosed and was owned by a bank. She was told she needed to leave by Oct. 7, which came as a shock to her and her children.(1)

***

On the brink of becoming homeless, Ryan wants to know why Sokolowski never told her about the foreclosure — and a plethora of other problems with the house. Ryan has sunk more than $3,000 of her own money into repairs, saying that she virtually gave up with Sokolowski and took matters into her own hands.

(1) Regrettably, this tenant is unaware of her rights under a federal foreclosure law signed this spring by President Barack Obama which requires property owners who come into land through foreclosure to honor all existing leases, and to provide at least a 90-day window for any month-to-month tenants. See Section 702(a)(2) of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009. By the way, the 90-day window begins, not on the date of the foreclosure sale, but rather, after the sale - specifically, on the date the foreclosure sale purchaser (be it the foreclosing lender or a third party purchaser) serves the formal notice to vacate on the tenant. RentSigmaSkimming

Nine area residents are suing Doylestown Township Supervisor Jeffrey Bennett and his law partner Stephen Doherty - attorneys at Bennett & Doherty P.C. - claiming they were defrauded in a real estate scheme. In a lawsuit filed in Bucks County Court last week, Bennett and Doherty are linked to what is alleged to be a complicated ploy where homeowners expecting to refinance mortgages ended up losing their homes and seeing their equity divvied up among attorneys, mortgage brokers and investors through a maze of fees, adjustments and "kickbacks."(1)[... Last week's] lawsuit adds seven new plaintiffs to what has been an evolving case against the defendants that started with complaints from Plumstead's William and Phyllis Kemp. [...] Neither Bennett nor Doherty agreed to be interviewed about the lawsuits but, in court documents filed in the Kemps' earlier state and federal suits, they denied any wrongdoing.(2)

***

Stuart Eisenberg of Warminster's McCullough & Eisenberg PC is representing all nine plaintiffs - the Kemps, Michael and Joann Lieber, Mark and Beverly Goldman, Jose and Carmen Ortiz and Susan Edge. All had faced foreclosure of their homes and turned to the defendants for help.(3)

***

The new court filing, which will consolidate the Kemps' earlier Bucks County court action, alleges similar claims brought by other plaintiffs who owned property in Bucks County, ran into financial trouble, and sought help from Bennett and Doherty or, in some cases, [mortgage broker Ed] McCusker. The suit alleges all were guided through similar transactions that ended with them losing title to their homes as well as equity.(4) The suit claims those deals included forged signatures on sales agreements, improperly inflated appraisals used to maximize borrowing from Long Beach Mortgage, the loss of more than $1 million in home equity from the six properties and alleged "kickbacks" to Bennett and Doherty totaling almost $56,000.

***

Reached at his Upper Makefield home last week, McCusker said he was simply following a program Bennett and Doherty said they designed "to help people facing foreclosure." The program, which he referred to as a sale-leaseback, allowed the Kemps to sell their home to investors and lease it back. Sale-leaseback deals aren't uncommon in real estate circles and they're not illegal if everyone involved knows and understands the terms and purpose. The Kemps say they didn't understand either, because they didn't have the documents in advance, they didn't realize what they were signing at the settlement table and they claim their names were forged on the agreement of sale. Assuming the homeowners could make their share of the mortgage payments and their credit remained solid, McCusker said they could have had the house sold back to them a year later [...]. The Kemps signed an "Option Agreement" at settlement listing terms by which the property could be returned.

(1) Bennett and Doherty top a list of defendants in the case, in which the residents claim they were swindled out of houses they owned in Haycock, Hilltown, Newtown Township, Plumstead, Richland and Solebury.

(2) Reportedly, the situation has caught the attention of Federal criminal investigators. In June, through their attorneys, Bennett and Doherty asked the U.S. District Court to halt the civil proceedings due, in part, to "a pending criminal investigation" by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, according to the story. They claimed defendants in the civil case were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in April with records relating to Bennett, Doherty and the others named in the suits. The motion for a delay was reportedly denied July 7.

(3) According to the story, not long after receiving word of the impending foreclosure, the Kemps said they received a flier in the mail from a company called "Foreclosure Relief Services," offering to help "stop foreclosure" and "save" the home. Bennett and Doherty admit in court documents to owning the company. The Kemps said they went to Bennett and Doherty for help in March 2006. Doherty agreed to represent the Kemps and file preliminary objections to the foreclosure. That was the extent of Doherty's legal representation, the defendants claimed in documents filed in response to the earlier suits.

(4) "It's my experience that clients go into a pink cloud," the homeowners' attorney Stuart Eisenberg reportedly said of people in a tight spot who believe they're getting help. "They're happy to have their burdens lifted. They don't know the details, but they're very happy about it. They sign where they're told to sign. They initial where they're told to initial." foreclosure rescue equity stripping

"Don't Get Mad, Get Even" Says Northern California Homeowner Group Using Court System To Fight Back Against Foreclosure

United under the guise of "Don't Get Mad, Get Even," the group has met weekly for the past few months in the San Rafael office of its overseer, nonprofit Marin Family Action. [...] "It's not that these people don't want to pay or aren't paying," said Manny Fernandez, executive director of Marin Family Action, who has worked on their behalf. "Multiple times people were trying to modify their loans. They got nowhere. Next thing you know, the house is sold right from underneath them."

[Rochelle] Cook's was the first of the group's series of individual lawsuits filed last month in Marin against the various patchworks of banks, mortgage firms and loan modification companies controlling their homes and forcing them out. The suits seek restitution for lost properties, financial devastation and crumbling credit. [...] Cook said she followed her bank's advice [...] to purposely miss three months of payments since her credit rating was too good to garner help. Default notices then piled up as calls to her lender, IndyMac Bank of Pasadena, went unheeded.

***

Officials with Marin Family Action, which assists residents with financial literacy and housing services, went the legal route after careful study of paperwork supplied by group members. Documents showed families were being forced into bankruptcy and out of their homes after what officials of the nonprofit called a sham of a loan modification process. Fernandez said each family had been denied loan modifications. Many were taken advantage of by brokers profiting from loan documents using overstated incomes and no proof of income, he said. "They were set up to fail," Fernandez said.

***

San Rafael attorney Russell Marne has provided pro bono litigation and bankruptcy assistance for the Marin group. "What we are trying to accomplish is simple, justice," he said. "Most of the group members received home loans that they did not understand nor could they afford. The loan brokers made their money and the banks have insurance against foreclosures."

Loan Servicer Switch Lands One Homeowner Couple In Costly Mess

A recent column in The Philadelphia Inquirer details how a screw-up relating to the transfer of the servicing rights by one company to another on mortgages owed by a New Jersey couple landed them in foreclosure, cost them $15,000 in legal fees, destroyed their credit, resulted in reductions in their credit lines, and caused them to raid their 401(k) to pay for college tuition because no one would lend them money while the foreclosure was an issue -- all this despite having promptly made their mortgage payments.

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Clifford McCall, age 48, of Lanham, Maryland today to four years in prison followed by five years of supervised release and his daughter, Chandra Jones, age 31, of Lanham, Maryland, to 33 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Titus also entered judgements ordering McCall to pay restitution of $2,462,107.85 and ordering Jones to pay restitution of $3,879,093.58.

***

McCall conspired with others in a scheme to fraudulently promise to help homeowners, who had substantial equity in their homes but were facing foreclosure because of their inability to make monthly mortgage payments, avoid foreclosure and repair their damaged credit. The homeowners were directed to allow title to their homes to be put in the names of third party purchasers (the straw buyers) for a year, during which time Metropolitan Money Store promised to improve the homeowners’ credit ratings, help them obtain more favorable mortgages, and eventually return title to their homes to them.

***

Using the homeowners’ properties, the conspirators applied for mortgages to extract the maximum available equity from the homes. They prepared and submitted fraudulent loan applications to mortgage lenders to obtain fraudulently inflated loans on the target properties in the straw buyers’ names. At settlements, the conspirators imposed numerous fees and required “seller contributions” which were far in excess of industry standards; they imposed fees for services which were not performed, disclosed or explained to the homeowners; and they transferred the sale proceeds out of the escrow accounts into the conspirators’ business and personal bank accounts and converted a substantial portion of those funds to their personal use.

When Maryann Salvas sent $1,795 to Aventura attorney Daniel Fox to arrange a modification of her mortgage and reduce her monthly payments, she didn’t hesitate because she thought “people were supposed to trust lawyers.” Almost a year passed without the loan on her Rhode Island house being modified, said Salvas who hired Fox based on a phone solicitation. In order to pay Fox’s fee, Salvas said she missed a mortgage payment, never caught up on the late payment, and is now four months behind on the mortgage.

***

Salvas and dozens of other homeowners filed complaints against Fox with the state attorney general or Florida Bar. Fox, 32, was disbarred on Sept. 3 after pleading guilty to disciplinary charges that he abandoned the “representation of clients” seeking real estate loan modifications. The attorney general’s office, which has received 50 complaints involving Fox, said its investigation of him continues.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Jury Says St. Pete-Area Foreclosure Rescue Operator Liable For Duping Financially Strapped Homeowner Into Signing Over Home Under Guise Of Help

In Sarasota, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:

In a "groundbreaking'' case that could be the first of its kind in the nation, a jury this week found that the owner of a St. Petersburg foreclosure rescue company scammed a 60-year-old Port Charlotte woman out of her home. The Sarasota County jury awarded $93,467 to Wanda Costa, who unwittingly sold the house to Gideon Rechnitz for nothing in 2006 even though she had substantial equity at the time. Under the guise of helping her, Costa's lawyers said, Rechnitz and associate Thomas Cook duped her into signing over the deed without making it clear she would still be responsible for the mortgage and thousands of dollars in "commissions.''(1)

"What the jury did in this case was say 'No' to that kind of behavior,'' said attorney Elizabeth Boyle of Gulfcoast Legal Services, which represented Costa for free. "I hope other people will come forward because they may get some relief, too.''

***

As fraud proliferates, there has been a growing number of cases nationwide in which judges ruled in favor of homeowners who claimed they were cheated out of their property.(2) Boyle said her research indicated that Costa's case may the first in which a verdict was rendered by a jury. The nonprofit National Consumer Law Center said it did not know if there have been jury verdicts elsewhere.

(2) After a six day bench trial, the Office of the Washington State Attorney General similarly secured a significant award (nearly $4.2 million) from a foreclosure rescue operator peddling sale leaseback deals to, and running alleged "foreclosure surplus snatching" scams on, financially strapped homeowners. The operator entered into transactions with more than 300 property owners, and no one ever successfully regained their home from him, according to the state AG's office [see Pay time for notorious foreclosure rescue scammer (Attorney General announces major victory in state’s case with Washington man who promised help but took homes)].

“Kaiser’s victims were elderly, disabled or low-income individuals – people who trusted him to solve their foreclosure problems and were betrayed,” [Prosecuting attorney James] Sugarman said. “Kaiser portrayed himself to these people as an expert in saving homes facing foreclosure, when he is actually an expert in taking homes facing foreclosure.”

Two Las Vegas residents were indicted [..] for allegedly operating a foreclosure rescue scam in Las Vegas, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said. Jack Ferm and Mario Saunders allegedly operated the foreclosure scheme from September 2008 through September 2009 under the business name US Justice Foundation.

The indictment alleges that Ferm and Saunders operated US Justice Foundation, described as a document preparation business that charged $2,500 and misled customers into thinking that the service would stop foreclosures on their homes or help them obtain loan modifications, Masto said. [...] In most cases, Ferm and Saunders required the victims to pay a monthly charge of $150 for litigation costs in addition to the original $2,500 retainer, despite the fact that neither Ferm nor Saunders were licensed attorneys in Nevada, authorities said.(1)

(1) Ferm was indicted on one felony theft count for obtaining money in excess of $2,500 by misrepresentation from a person 60 years of age or older; five felony counts of theft; and one felony count of theft of money in excess of $250 by misrepresentation from a person 60 years or older; and three felony counts of theft obtaining money in excess of $250 by misrepresentation. An indictment against Saunders included four felony counts of theft in excess of $2,500 and one felony count of theft of $250 or more by misrepresentation.

Gladis Heras [...] thought she was in good hands. Heras said she paid [attorney Daniel] Fox $3,500 in January 2009 to modify her mortgage. Yet months later, the bank told the New York resident it had never been contacted by Fox about the modification. Her story is familiar, according to the attorney general’s office and [Florida] Bar officials. The officials say homeowners most frequently report that lawyers charged them from $1,500 to $5,000 to negotiate lower monthly mortgage payments. And that once paid, the attorneys either stopped answering calls or made no effort to contact the lender.

On top of lack of representation cases before the AG’s office and the Florida Bar, there also are ethical questions about how lawyers handle foreclosure defense and loan modifications, especially the way homeowners are billed. Some lawyers are being criticized for aggressive fee structures that are tied to the amount owed on the mortgage rather than the scope of work involved. Some lawyers charge homeowners monthly fees until the case is resolved or flat fees billed in monthly installments.(1)

***

Another issue: Some homeowners believe that as soon as they start making monthly payments to an attorney they have legal representation. That is not always the case, [local foreclosure defense attorney George] Castratarosaid. Although the payments are in installments, legal representation may not begin until a minimum amount is deposited into a lawyer’s trust account. That could take two to six months.

***

Another pitfall for homeowners who don’t want to do [their loan modification] themselves: Castrataro said some lawyers take on modification cases where they know — or should know — the homeowner doesn’t qualify for a loan modification. After taking a fee and overseeing a needless process, they tell the homeowner the modification was denied. Castrataro says inexperience or taking too many cases is as much to blame as greed for that situation.

(1) Both fee structures are problematic, said George Castrataro, a former lawyer with Legal Aid Service of Broward County who now has his own firm and does foreclosure defense work. “The fees should be directly related to a reasonable number of hours an attorney spends working on the case,” he said. “The amount often taken is very similar to client mortgage obligation. If it takes two hours to resolve it, that is what it should cost, and not how much they pay in mortgage. That [practice] is in direct violation of our obligations.” UnauthPractOfLawTheta

A bankruptcy judge here, joining judges across the country, is throwing a bit of sand in the gears of the mortgage machine and its ruthless foreclosure blade. She has raised this issue: In many home foreclosures springing out of bankruptcy proceedings, the foreclosure is being triggered by a representative of the lender — a surrogate that may not have a legal, equity stake in the proceedings. As a result, it is conceivable — though still something of a legal long shot — that the homeowner who is filing for bankruptcy protection could end up saving his house.

The argument that a lender’s surrogate can’t trigger foreclosure has drawn notice of Nevada homeowners, who are preparing a class action lawsuit. They are seeking a preliminary injunction this month to stop their foreclosures.(1)

***

[I]n a Las Vegas case this spring, federal Bankruptcy Judge Linda Riegle ruled that MERS had no standing because the company is not the real party in interest — it doesn’t actually own the loan. In other words, in the course of bankruptcy proceedings, MERS had no claim to the house.(2)

(1) Reportedly, University of Utah law professor and former consumer rights attorney Christopher Peterson has been hired by the Reno law firm Hager & Hearne as an expert witness in a class action lawsuit that will seek to invalidate the right of MERS to trigger foreclosure. Their case will reportedly rely heavily on a recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling [see Landmark Nat'l Bank v. Kesler, No. 98,489, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834 (August 28, 2009)]. In that foreclosure case, the court said that MERS had “no right to the underlying debt repayment secured by the mortgage ...”

Former real estate agent Eric Alpert, whose nefarious business practices were brought to light by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2003, has been arrested by North Las Vegas police for renting homes he did not own or have permission from the owner to rent. [...] Alpert, 54, has been charged with four counts of burglary; four counts of theft; four counts of obtaining money under false pretenses; and seven counts of forgery. The district attorney's office said it also plans charges on three counts of offering a false instrument.

Alpert identified properties that appeared to be abandoned or in foreclosure, cleaned them up and changed the locks, then rented them cheaply to people who had no suspicion of his wrongdoings. He had about 20 homes in Las Vegas, some of them titled to living trusts and under the name of his former business, Sherlock Homes, according to Clark County Assessor records.

***

Court filings reveal that Alpert apparently continued to engage in real estate activity that's at least similar to what he was doing a few years ago, attorney Mark Connot of Hutchison & Steffen law firm said. Alpert appears to file an action to quiet title on properties, and if the owner does not appear to contest the action, he receives title to the property, the lawyer said. He claimed at that time to be legally taking homes by "adverse possession" under Nevada law, but the attorney general's affidavit notes that NRS 11.150 specifically states that "requirements for adverse possession is occupation continuously for five years" and payment of taxes, which Alpert did not do.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

A 30-year-old professional chef from Keego Harbor fell in love with a house in Berkley that she saw listed for rent on the Web site Craigslist. She especially liked its kitchen. But it turned out the house was not really for rent, and the woman nearly fell prey to a scam that's targeting renters in Oakland County and elsewhere.

Authorities say the scam artists pose as homeowners looking to rent out their houses. They often pick a house that's for sale so it's not occupied, and post a real picture of the property with a "for rent" advertisement on Craigslist, an online classified service.

***

Berkley Public Safety Detective Sgt. Michael Crum has taken nine or 10 reports of similar scams since the end of May. In two of those, people lost money, he said. [...] Crum said scammers also will sometimes open the lockbox on the outside of the door of a house for sale, take the key inside and make a duplicate. The duplicate key will be given to the renter, who moves in — to the shock of the real estate agent who is listing the house. Crum said the scam has happened in other states, such as South Carolina and California, and now seems to be hitting the metro Detroit area.

The South Florida community is ground zero for the national foreclosure crisis. In response, the University of Miami School of Law has created Foreclosure Defense Fellowships that will enable newly minted lawyers to give free help to local residents caught in the foreclosure crisis. The School of Law is one of the first schools in the nation to create a program of this kind in response to the crisis that is sweeping the country. Recent UM graduates will acquire real-world work experience and address a serious need in the community at the same time.

***

Eight UM Law graduates were the winners of these fellowships. Six fellows [...] will work for the Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. (LSGMI). Two additional fellows [...] will work at the Legal Aid Service of Broward County, Inc. They will receive a limited grant totaling $10,000 in exchange for working at least three days a week for 27 weeks, commencing in early October. The fellows will receive intensive training [...] at a foreclosure workshop hosted by the UM School of Law, featuring April Charney, JD ’80, a consumer lawyer and nationally recognized foreclosure defense expert.

In addition, three students from the School of Law’s LL.M. in Real Property Development [...] will inaugurate a clinical track in that program by providing 15 hours per week of free foreclosure defense representation. The LL.M students will work under the supervision of local lawyers who also will be working without pay. These fellows will be placed at “The Foreclosure Project,” created by Richard Burton, JD ’74, which provides free legal representation to homeowners facing foreclosure in Dade and Broward counties.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has censured a Point Pleasant, N.J., solo for splitting fees with a company that helped him find clients entitled to surplus funds from sheriff's foreclosure sales.(1) The court adopted the Disciplinary Review Board's finding that Garrett Lardiere's business relationship with Vermont-based Equinox Research and Recovery Co. constituted impermissible sharing of legal fees with non-lawyers.

According to the DRB, Lardiere's relationship with Equinox dates to 2003. The company researches foreclosure records to find surplus funds from sheriff's sales on deposit in New Jersey Superior Court. Equinox sent letters printed on Lardiere's letterhead to individuals it believed were entitled to such funds. The letters were signed by an Equinox employee and listed the company's toll-free phone number.

***

The DRB, in a July 23 opinion, said the record included letters from Equinox to Lardiere that "call into question respondents' professional independence" in the matters in question. In one, Lardiere was urged to refer inquiries from would-be clients to Equinox, because "we know what is going on in the case and stand a better chance in getting them to sign at a higher rate," a company representative wrote.(2)

Lardiere "relinquished control of his cases to an organization of non-lawyers who were acting under color of his name in dealing with his clients," the DRB found. In addition, he failed to ensure that his clients' interests would be protected.(3)

***

The DRB said either a censure or a three-month suspension could be supported for the fee-sharing offense, combined with the record-keeping and failure to cooperate offenses. It imposed censure based on Lardiere's 35-year unblemished record. "Respondent is not venal. Rather, he has a distinct lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding about his responsibilities as a member of the bar," the DRB said.

(1) When the sales price of a home sold at a foreclosure or sheriff's sale exceeds what is owed to the mortgage holder, the excess is generally referred to as the "foreclosure surplus," "surplus funds," or "the overage."

(2) Reportedly, people who responded to the solicitations were asked to sign a contingency agreement with Lardiere, which came attached to the letter. But the letters contained none of the language required in attorney-solicitation letters under New Jersey Rule of Professional Conduct 7.3, such as a prominent heading with the word "Advertisement" or a notice that the recipient may contact the Committee on Attorney Advertising if the content is misleading or inaccurate, the DRB said.

With respect to the compensation scheme. Equinox received a percentage of the funds recovered, and Lardiere received a cut of Equinox's share, along with a flat fee of $750 per case. When Lardiere received a recovery, he deposited it in his trust account and disbursed the proceeds to the client, to Equinox and to himself.

(3) The DRB also found Lardiere's violated record-keeping strictures by keeping unreconciled trust accounts, and further that he was reluctant to give ethics investigators unfettered access to his files, constituting a failure to cooperate with disciplinary authorities. lawyer renting UnauthPractOfLawTheta

Landlord To Cough Up $134K To Settle Allegations Of Refusing Rental To Woman w/ "Too Many Children," Charging Other Tenants Extra Fees For Having Kids

From the U.S. Department of Justice:

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) [...] jointly announced an agreement with the owners and managers of Pina’s Mobile Home Park in Daphne, Ala., to settle allegations of discrimination against families with children. Under the consent decree, [...] the defendants must pay up to $104,130 to victims of discrimination and an additional $30,000 to the government as a civil penalty.

The lawsuit [...] originated from a charge filed by HUD on behalf of a woman who tried to rent at Pina’s Mobile Home Park, but was told she had too many children (three) to live in the park. Numerous other tenants were charged extra monthly fees for having children in their mobile homes. The complaint alleges that Arthur C. Witherington and Pina D. Witherington violated the Fair Housing Act when they discriminated against applicants and tenants with children under 18.(1)

(1) "Limiting how many children a tenant can have and charging extra fees for children are discriminatory, and families are protected from this kind of discrimination by the Fair Housing Act," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King of the Civil Rights Division. "People do not lose their rights to fair housing because they have children," said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. "HUD and the Department of Justice will defend their rights vigorously."

The Justice Department [...] announced that it had reached a settlement with a Virginia landlord to resolve allegations that she violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The lawsuit alleged that the landlord failed to return prepaid rent and security deposits to a tenant who had terminated her lease early in order to comply with military orders to relocate to Georgia.(1) [...] The complaint, which was filed with the settlement, represents the first lawsuit involving a landlord-tenant matter brought by the Justice Department under the SCRA.(2) Under the terms of the settlement, which must be approved in federal court in Virginia, the landlord must pay her former tenant a total of $5,600 in damages and is enjoined from engaging in future violations of the SCRA.

***

The tenant in this lawsuit, Colonel Debra Bean, is a highly decorated member of the armed forces. Colonel Bean currently serves as Vice Commander for the 78th Air Base Wing at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.(3)

(1) The SCRA provides certain protections to active duty servicemembers who must terminate residential leases to comply with military orders for a permanent change of station or for deployment.

(2) According to their press release, the Justice Department’s investigation of this matter originated with a referral to the Civil Rights Division from the U.S. Air Force. The Civil Rights Division received enforcement authority under the SCRA in 2006, and has since reviewed numerous allegations of SCRA violations and resolved investigations in the following areas without the need for litigation:

the charging of excess interest over the six percent interest rate cap;

the repossession of vehicles without court orders; and

the foreclosure on home mortgage loans without court orders.

Servicemembers and their dependents who believe that their SCRA rights have been violated should contact the nearest Armed Forces Legal Assistance Program office. Office locations may be found at http://legalassistance.law.af.mil/content/locator.php. Additional information on the Justice Department’s enforcement of the SCRA and other laws protecting servicemembers is available at www.servicemembers.gov.

From the Legal Services Corporation, a private, nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for civil legal assistance to low-income Americans:

Nearly a million poor people who seek help for civil legal problems, such as foreclosures and domestic violence, will be turned away this year by the nation's largest nonprofit legal aid network because of insufficient resources, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) projects in a report released [Wednesday]. The report is the Corporation's second analysis of the "justice gap" in America -- the difference between the level of civil legal assistance available and the level that is necessary to meet the legal needs of low-income individuals and families.

***

"Many of these Americans in need of legal assistance are the most vulnerable among us-they are trying to escape from domestic violence, trying to avert foreclosure and homelessness, trying to qualify for disability benefits, trying to recover from natural disasters. Legal aid saves lives and makes communities stronger," LSC President [Helaine M.] Barnett said.

CBC News: Betrayal of Trust (A CBC investigation reveals how lawyers across Canada have misappropriated and mishandled clients money, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, or sometimes even charging vulnerable people top dollar for shoddy services)

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